Abstract: The subject of the study is housing conditions, diet, organization of life in orphanages of the Yenisei province after the end of the Civil War. In the conditions of mass homelessness and juvenile delinquency, the state sought to take care of all children in need, to re-socialize them and make them useful citizens of the new state. On the basis of archival materials, the living conditions of minors in orphanages in the early Soviet period are analyzed. Of all the institutions of social and legal protection of childhood operating during the study period, orphanages were selected as the most widespread institutions. The leading method of research was historical and anthropological.

The article emphasizes the desire of the young Soviet state to make orphans and street children useful citizens of society. The authors come to the conclusion that the network of children's social institutions in the province, dispersed across different people's commissariats, did not cover all children in need of care and assistance, the operating orphanages could not cope with the tasks assigned to them, contributed little to the preparation of pupils for future independent life, but helped them survive in the difficult conditions of the period under study. The work of institutions was primarily affected by financial difficulties, budget deficit, lack of teaching staff, lack of systematic interaction in the activities of state bodies and public organizations involved in solving the "children's issue" in one way or another.

Abstract: The goal of this work is to assess the efficiency of the program-targeted method of administration based on the experience of implementation of the complex program of sociocultural development of Krasnoyarsk Krai during the period of 1980’s. The specificity of the region is substantiated by the fact that the large-scale tasks on its industrial assimilation were performed in the conditions of complete absence of infrastructure, deficit of labor resources, as well as its geographical remoteness from the central authorities. The scientific novelty consists in the following: based on the archive data, the authors attempted to determine the decision-making mechanism along with realization of complex goals pertaining to changes in the working conditions and meeting the cultural demands of the population of the region. The article also analyzes the public initiatives that emerged in the region during the examined period.